Long wait but finally successful

Mr Pali Pitam Munian (63) holding his newly secured BC

After trying for 25 years Pali Pitan Munian (63) was finally successful with the assistance of SITF to secure his birth certificate. He has now taken the forms and has made an application to change his identification card from red to blue, from resident to citizen. He has endured and finally was victories.

More such stories will emerge in the coming days as SITF is now giving tremendous attention to undocumented Malaysian Indians, assisting affected people in the processing stage and seeking to ratify their undocumented status.

On Dec 11, 2010 SITF organized special session at the National Registration Department’s office at Seberang Peri (Utara) at Butterworth office and at Seberang Peri (Selatan) at Jawi for the Indian community to come directly submit their applications. At hand to assist the Indian community were Dato Siva Subramanium (SITF) and Dato Suppayiah (MIC Penang).

SITF finds this approach of establishing the linkage between the community and the relevant public sector agency the most effective way of solving the affected persons’ problem. SITF acknowledges documentation is a major problem and at the bottom ordinary people lack confidence that they can succeed. They also have fears in approaching authorities especially officials linked with the Home Affairs on their undocumented status.

On Dec 11, 2010 through the effort by SITF and local leaders, a total of 42 cases were received, of which 24 were related to securing a birth certificate (BC), 8 pertaining to identification cards (IC) and another 10 for citizenship applications.